What Does Exercise Really Mean?

Stott Pilates Reformer

Exercise has been defined as "the exertion of muscles, limbs, etc, especially for health's sake; bodily, mental or spiritual training." In the Western world, we have placed an emphasis on "bodily training; when we talk about exercise, ignoring mental and spiritual training. Only recently have Western studies begun to focus on the mental benefits of exercise. It's been shown, for example, that exercise stimulates the production of endorphins, neurotransmitters that occur naturally in the brain and make us feel good. But we in the West do not encourage meditation or other calming forms of mental and spiritual exercise, which have also been shown to improve well-being and health.

In the East, for thousands of years, exercise has focused on achieving mental and spiritual health through the body, using breathing and postures.

Since the blood contains oxygen, the faster your blood flows, the more oxygen can flow to your organs. It is important to note that when you exercise, or take up aerobic exercise, the increase of oxygen exercises the heart muscle. The faster your heart beats, the better a workout the heart gets (although you don't want to overwork your heart). You want to make it stronger--a fit heart will get you through the day by working less.

When more oxygen is in our bodies, we burn fat, our breathing improves, our blood pressure goes down and our hearts work more efficiently Oxygen also lowers triglycerides and cholesterol, increasing HDL, or "good" cholesterol, while decreasing LDL, or "bad" cholesterol. This means that your arteries will not be clogged and you may significantly decrease your risk of heart disease and stroke. Ancient techniques such as yoga, which specifically improve mental and spiritual well-being, achieve this by combining deep breathing and stretching, which improves oxygen and blood flow to specific parts of the body.

People who are active regularly have dramatically lower incidences of many cancers. Some research suggests that cancer cells thrive in an oxygen-depleted environment. The more oxygen in the bloodstream, the less hospitable you make your body to cancer. In addition, since many cancers are related to fat-soluble toxins, the less fat on your body, the less fat-soluble toxins our body can accumulate. The only kind of exercise that will burn fat is aerobic exercise because oxygen burns fat. The oxygen will burn your fat however you increase the oxygen flow in your body, through jumping around, increasing heart rate or employing an established deep-breathing technique.

Stopping Cancer at the Source M. Sara Rosenthal, Ph.D.